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Monday, October 31, 2016

Spoooooky Sickbed Edition

I saw that no one had signed up for this week, and figured that I can peek in and host here and there this week, since I'll be home more than usual. The wee Microbe Incubator (tm Gary at the end of last week's comments) is laying on the couch, watching Super Why, and waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. She's determined to do a bit of trick-or-treating tonight, but it's going to be an abbreviated version: we'll get her into whatever of her costume is already finished, and carry her to go and meet the immediate neighbours.

So, it's all whines and Halloween candy (for me) around here. How about all of you?

Gary, seconding the date amazement! Love the mental picture of the kids a safe distance apart on the couch, and the lurking parental ghosts... ;)

So, according to my son there is still no wedding date, because the place they wanted, they got the wrong info at first and it would cost 3 times as much as they thought, and.... Then he got annoyed with me, so I will take up further discussions of venue possibilities with the MOTB.

As for borscht, I've never tried it, but in my youth, as a dishwasher at Ponderosa, I had to empty way too many garbage cans where beet juice, drained from #10 cans into the garbage by the salad bar crew, had collected and congealed on the bottom. Which meant, pinky beet pungency was the last thing to hit my nostrils as the garbage went into the dumpster. So borscht, much like pineapple on pizza, is something I will never try.

We often get no trick or treaters at all. Last year, 3 groups. I'm ready! People in my house ate all the little packets of japanese cookies with choc in the middle, but I managed to stash a lot of candy that they didn't find yet. ;)

1 hour and six minutes until trick-or-treat time! (We're starting at 6pm, because we're only going to five houses and then the sick kid is going to bed!)

We're prepared for a reasonable number of trick-or-treaters, but it's entirely possible we'll only get a handful. Ours is a through street, and I've noticed that people seem to pick quiet streets instead. We'll see!

I think it's a pretty close estimate, though it's hard to keep a count when they come at that rate. It was the whole town, plus outlying areas. Flatbed trailers full of kids. By contrast, this year was pleasant.

500! My mother-in-law was bemoaning the fact that, now that they moved to the city, they get nothing like the 200 they got in their small town. (The first year after they moved here, they bought enough candy for 400 kids -- thinking there would be more in the city -- and got 40 kids). It looks like we're done for the night, with a grand total of 24 kids. Just as I suspected. Mr. Q and my MIL were rationing out the candy at first, as I was getting E into her costume, and I had to intervene and give each kid a handful. Still a full bowl of candy left!

AW: We've had a steady stream of folks coming and going at the church this morning. Some for visits, some with posters to post or Christmas Tea plans to work on... it's lovely.

W: Amount of work actually done by the minister... well, like the goblins, none! Though of course the visits etc...that's work, but in terms of something tangible I can point to and say "See, that's done!" - well, not so much.

QWP, we don't really have kids on the block any more. There are a couple of teenagers, but if they indulge, they go to the more popular and busy streets, with big decorations. Last year we got a few, anyway, breaking the zero streak! Not this year.

Sue -- yay for all the visits and people with plans! I know, the work product doesn't show up on a list. But, sounds like a good morning anyway. :)

We got about 40 or so kids. I gave out two candies per kid and we still have tons of candy left. Not too many elementary school kids on our cul de sac anymore (they're all growing up so fast!) and the middle and high schoolers go to the larger area of our HOA to get more houses faster. Our cul de sac has 49 houses (note that number, with 50 houses you need a second entrance/exit in our commonwealth).

Anyone want some pumpkins? In addition to the 16 sugar pumpkins my MIL gave me, I got almost 6L of puree out of my jack o'lantern today. I am quickly amassing recipes, as I figure out what to do with this much pumpkin. This really has been the theme of my year, hasn't it? Remember the bushels of apples I acquired in the summer?

W/AW: E's improvement is slow. She's upgraded from "my ear is sad" to "my ear is both happy and sad," with a brief window in the afternoon when she said her ear was "happy," and I didn't have to give her any painkillers today. But she is exhausted. I spent the afternoon trapped under a cuddly, tired preschooler. So, she's staying home from school tomorrow again.

Big AW: during the tiny window of time between Mr. Q's return home from work and his departure for night class, I went out and bought a 7.5 foot tall artificial Christmas tree, which was on sale for 60% off this week. We might be a LITTLE excited about decorating for the holidays, now that we're out of the basement suite.

That's a lot of pumpkin, QWP. I wish I had some wisdom to share about possible uses, but alas, I have none.

Yay on the Christmas tree - that's a great deal!!

W: Hubby is experiencing more fatigue than usual - it's an MS thing. He's been pretty steady in terms of progression in the past few years... a bit weaker every year but still able to transfer and use a manual chair, less sensation in his right hand, and a few other things. This increase in fatigue is the biggest change we've seen in a long time. We talked about whether it might be a sign of depression, but he has no other symptoms at all, so we're thinking MS. Which sucks.

((( Sue and Hubby ))) Oh, I'm so sorry. You both have dealt so gracefully and thoughtfully with all of the MS stuff, for a good many years now. My heroes. xoxox

There's been extra stress, I imagine, with the in-laws having medical things and needing a change in circumstances. But, worth it to talk to the doc -- because you have no doubt taken that into account. And, maybe there are measures that can help your beloved with this new thing.

(Warning: this is more of a rant than a whine): I love the book of faces, I really do. But we have got to develop some norms of decency surrounding death on that thing. The following conversation is what set me off. (From my seminary's alumni page. Seminary. People who should know how to deal with grief and death).

Random alum: Hey, has anyone heard anything about (former seminary President) Bob?Next random alum: OMG, what happened to Bob?Random alum: Well, I don't want to start rumors, but I heard he died. I asked Official Seminary Person, but they hadn't heard anything, so I thought I would ask here.Third random alum: Why don't you FB message Bob's wife

W.T.Fireplace, people. Just sit tight. IF something has happened, you'll hear, in plenty of time to attend a service. IF something has happened, let's let the people closest to potentially dead person hear the news in a more compassionate manner. IF potentially dead person is in fact dead, then for heaven's sake, why would you FB message his widow to find out? You are not the center of the world!!!

OMG! My husband just ran into an old friend -- someone who worked at my old office, and his daughter and my daughter were good friends all the way back. Our sons were friends, too -- we used to trade off overnights, because the kids got along so well. And, his daughter's doing great in law school; has been interning in my line of work. Makes us feel all bubbly and bright.

I really do hope that these seminary alumni learn their lesson about Facebook etiquette and preemptively spreading rumours about people's deaths! Yikes.

W: I banged my head on the door to the cold room (it has a really low ceiling and I have to crouch in there), and now I have a headache and am grouchy. Juuuuust on the edge of concussion. But mostly grouchy.

Also W: halfway through supper (just after Mr. Q left for night class), E suddenly realised that we were eating her jack o'lantern (in pumpkin pasta form) and utterly lost it. It was hard to help her recover from that one, because it was like she was eating her friend.

AW: I mostly recovered the evening by letting her draw a "face" on a pie pumpkin, using washable markers, while letting her watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. And now the rest of the puree is going in the freezer, and the pie pumpkin is going back to the cold storage room (carefully, and watching for my head), and I'm going to take a break from discussing pumpkins for a while.

I roasted a pie pumpkin with some ginger, tumeric, pepper. And it was yum.

But dang. My household lacks large and sharp enough knives to deal with the hard gourds. The initial plan was 3/4 inch slices, all nicely lined up. What happened was a lot of uneven pieces, the first cuts only being executed by pounding the heck out of the pumpkin to advance the knife. Which I suspect is not how the great chefs do these things. But hey -- sweet savory pumpkin!

QWP - hope your head feels better. It must be head-banging week around here. Older son butted heads with a girl in gym class playing floor hockey yesterday. One ER trip later, he was diagnosed with a bump on the head. No imaging, no concussion. He told me this morning that the girl is similarly bumped but non-concussed. So ultimately an anti-whine, but afternoon trips to the ER always include at least a smidgen of whine.

QWP - Ouch!!! Sorry about your sore head. In my book of faces "on this day" thing, it was five years since my "Head Meets Freezer Door" incident. I hope you feel better soon.

Gary, I'm glad your son and the young woman with whom he was injured are okay. Also, I never understood those mini-marshmallows. It's not really a thing around here, but I see it in all the holiday spreads posted online. On the other hand, I don't get those tiny onions in white sauce either....

I am ticked at someone on the internet. Actually, I might be ticked at 95% of the entire internet. My effort at cosmic balance has been posting cat photos, and I'm running short on them, too. That is all.

I got my mad on because someone was lecturing a bunch of family members dealing with my SIL's peculiar kind of dementia, saying that her dog training techniques ought to work to "train" them. And then she doubled down, essentially blaming the weary caregivers for the really confounding effects of this brain disorder. Grr.

AW: Lasagne is a magical grumpies-be-gone food at my house, and there's always plenty for another night, too. This one featured sausage, onion, mushrooms, red bell pepper, and spinach (mostly leftover bits, so it also worked to clear the fridge).

W; And then, on the way home, E suddenly announced that she urgently needed the potty, and I thought "What luck! The public library is right there!" Pixies, the library was CLOSED. On a WEEKDAY. During their NORMAL HOURS. Just a big old "closed" sign and locked doors. What?! (Update: I just checked the library website, and apparently all branches were closed today because they were having a special professional development thing, city-wide.) I ended up picking up the child, and sprinting for two blocks (because the only other public establishments on that block were restaurants that hadn't opened yet), as my child yelled, "The pee is going to come out of me!"

AW: thank goodness for the crunchy kids' store that literally has "Groovy" in the name, and which is big into potty training stuff, and which I knew was two blocks away from the library. We made it in time, and they have an excellent, kid-friendly, public bathroom. The owner then said, "We're open every day: always feel free to come in here to use the bathroom, if you're shopping in the area." (It's an area with a lot of little shops and restaurants.) I then proceeded to spend money there. (I bought E a new book, and a water bottle for myself.)

I'm now going to sit with my feet up, for the whole evening. Sprinting while holding a squirming, 40lb sack of potatoes is quite the workout.

I sprinted down the street on Wednesday pulling the ginormous recycling can. Our recycling truck only comes every two weeks (that's biweekly?). I heard it outside, and knew that our can was already full. So I jumped out the back door, sprinted with the can (thankful it has wheels) out the back gate, down the side of the house, and three houses down the street to catch up with it. The recycling truck guy was nice enough not to laugh at me.

Sprinting victories for QWP and esperanza!!! I'm glad you both made it to your goals.

I called yesterday thinking I could take my car in this coming week for winter servicing and winter tires. Not so much. It's been exceptionally warm here, all through October and now into November, so no one (apparently) thought about winter tires until now. The earliest they can fit me in is Nov 23rd. I've never switched out my tires later than the 5th or 6th.

Yesterday we hit 19C (66F) - unheard of in November. Today is sunny, expecting a high of 14!

Three more days. My daughter gave me more animal photos, to support a small effort to balance the environmental toxins on the book of visages. Political story: cat. Political rant: miniature donkeys. Snarky political photo: kittens.

Sue: I just checked the weather report, and it hit 19 here yesterday, too! And it's going up to 15 today. Mr. Q is winterizing our garden and raking today (thankfully, we didn't miss our chance before the snow stayed!)

W: I seem to have bruised the bottom of my foot yesterday, or knocked something in my hip out of place badly enough to cause a pinched nerve. I'm spending the day with my foot up, because I'm in pain.

AW: Busting my buttons about both Baboos. We went to church for a kids' project to help pack grocery sacks for the church's food pantry. Without my direct supervision, they both stayed on task and helped the whole time. Sweet managed quite well in a loud, chaotic, small room. I was pleasantly surprised. And no meltdown afterward, either.

W: Seriously, this could have been organized way better and easier for kids to help.

Junior cat just tried to kill me by snuggling. Again. I got off with a minor bite to the upper arm.

So, I tried to go to a quilt show reception!!! for the local sister in law of a former WW person, and my car decided the left mirror was superfluous.

Also, there is a man cold in the house, but it has taken the therapeutic step of attempting to superglue the mirror back on the car. Don't ask me how these things work! A man cold sometimes requires unusual measures.

I (unusually for me) preached about the election today, and it was well received. These folks at this little place surprise me all the time. And! Very exciting for my uber-pasty denomination: 5 of the 12 in attendance were people of color. A Puerto Rican couple (not very common around here), a Mexican-American couple, and the African-American woman that plays the piano and her husband (they're Methodist, and leave immediately afterward to go to their church. I'm counting them anyway).

W: my fooooot huuuuurts. I seem to have done something weird to my metatarsal (ball of my foot), likely because I've been going barefoot around the house a lot, and have been neglecting to wear my orthotics because they need replacing (the old ones are all cracked). (The real culprit was that sprint while hauling E, while wearing crummy little slip-on shoes, but my foot was already a little sore and cramped earlier that day.) So: resting and icing my foot, and tomorrow I'm going to be a wimp and drive E the two and a half blocks to school. If my foot doesn't get better after resting it for a day, I'll go and have the doctor check it out, in case I have a tiny stress fracture. (My sister made me promise that: she's broken that part of her foot a few times. Once while salsa dancing in heels!)

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Wednesday Whining is a weekly blog with rotating hosts. Whines and Anti-Whines, both big and small, are welcome! Our purposes are mutual support and sharing a few laughs along the way.

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